The Way of Water has no beginning and no end. The sea is around you and in you.

Avatar: The Way of Water is a dream. It is not just a piece of cinema it is the Reality. It is a very surreal experience. IMAX is the best format to experience this spectacle. This beauty deserves to be watched on the biggest possible screen. The last time I had such an experience in IMAX was during Avengers: End Game. Avatar is a step ahead when it comes to the visuals and the 3D. It is a super immersive cinematic experience. It creates such a world in which you feel like getting immersed again and again. You feel as if you are a part of the world. The characters feel so real. Their conflict becomes your conflict. Their loss becomes your loss. It is a film where you are watching in awe with your mouth open. You are just marveling at this wonder. It has a very enchanting rhythm. A film where you don’t feel like getting up from your seat during the interval. You are so much into it that you don’t even feel like eating or drinking anything while you are watching it. I literally did that. There are very few films that can achieve this feat. I would’ve loved to watch it without any interval. You never feel the duration of the film. The visuals just flow seamlessly like water. The best 3D I have ever seen.

James Cameron is my inspiration. He is a visionary. A master of his craft. He makes this dream come alive on the big screen with his brilliant visual storytelling. He is the God of Filmmaking. No one can even come close to him. He is a legend. Avatar: The Way of Water is a perfect film. How can anyone do it so perfectly? He gives you everything you want from a film as an audience. I love the way he explores the world of his film. That in itself becomes a character of the film. I love the editing of the film. I like the edit pattern. The shots are put together in such a way that the information in conveyed visually first before it can be revealed in dialogue. When Spider is talking about his father to Lo’ak and Kiri in the lab, from Spider the shot is cut to the avatar of Miles Quaritch in the spacecraft. I like the use of light coming towards the camera as fade out like when the sky people attack the forest of Pandora the forest fire is nicely used as a fade out as the intensity of the fire increases.

The film is universal. I like the universality of the film. It is this universality that gives his films such a long shelf-life. Even if his films are released every year one after the other there will still be a generation of people cherishing his films and marveling at his genius. James Cameron is a milestone in the history of cinema.

I have become a big fan of Avatar. After The Way of Water, my craze for the soon to be released Avatar sequels has massively increased. When the next sequel releases, I will be going crazy over it. I wish to watch Avatar (2009) and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) back-to-back in the theater. I wish both the films are released together. It would be a treat to watch them back-to-back in IMAX. James Cameron, are you listening?

I love the way James Cameron concludes the film, the way he has done the winding up. He provides a proper closure. After the high-octane action sequence, it is very patiently done without rushing into it. Even if it is a beginning of something else but this particular chapter is brought to a proper end. It is very much like the film coming a full circle from where it began. I admire James Cameron for taking his time with everything. Be it the set-up, be it the confrontation, be it the resolution, be it the exposition, be it the conflict, be it exploring the world, exploring the characters. That is what makes the film so beautiful.

The man v/s nature, man v/s native inhabitants conflict is so relevant. It can be looked as a metaphor to what man has already done to the Earth and now after having exploited the resources and having destroyed the Earth enough, is looking to do the same thing on Pandora. Not realising that to make Pandora habitable for humans, man is destroying the natural ecological cycles and displacing the native inhabitants of Pandora. Parallels can be drawn between the two. Anyone standing up against the invaders to protect the Na’vi, not letting them colonize Pandora becomes their villain like in this case Jake Sully.

It can be related to man’s greed, crony capitalism, industrialization, advancement in science and technology and exploitation of resources leading to land grabbing, colonization; displacing the native inhabitants or the tribals away from their natural habitats. Man is earning millions of dollars by hunting animals and exploiting them. An example being the hunting of Tulkuns to extract a fluid that stops aging called amrita that is worth millions of dollars. This money is used to fund their science, research and their operations on Pandora. Similarly, it can be connected to Avatar where they (Parker and Quaritch) were exploiting the forest of Pandora to extract unobtanium from the ground which fetched them millions of dollars which was again used to fund their science and research.

You can also relate it to coal mining in India that is destroying the forest cover or to the Amazon Forest fire. The film has many subtexts. It is not only the story of Pandora or the Na’vi, it is the story of us humans and our planet Earth. The relationship between the Na’vi and the nature sheds a light on how humans are supposed to be one with the nature and work in tandem with nature instead of being in conflict with it. Humans are supposed to coexist with nature. This relationship has been fabulously explored and takes us to our roots where we worshipped nature and considered it sacred. The tribals or the native inhabitants still do. I like the philosophy of the film.

The relationship between Lo’ak and Payakan is adorable. It is the highlight of the film. It can be compared to the human-animal bond. The loyalty shown by the animals towards humans. Today, man is in a constant conflict with animals which has led to the extinction of many species of animals. He is destroying their natural habitats which in turn leads to retaliation from them. He is encroaching upon their space and then when the animal comes, he is termed as a man eater or a monster. Humans are supposed to stay in harmony with animals. The friendship between Lo’ak and Payakan shows that if you are good to animals and coexist in harmony with them, they will surely have your back. They have their ways of paying back to the people who are kind to them, who help them. When the need comes, they can even protect their human, fight for him and come to his rescue. I like the shot from a low angle where Lo’ak is holding Payakan’s fin and both of them are submerged in the sea. It is an iconic shot. It beautifully depicts the deepening of the bond between them.

I love the themes the film deals with especially about family. It highlights the importance of sticking together as a family. “Sullys stick together”. “A father protects. It’s what gives him meaning”. The Sully family is the heart of the film. I even like the theme of hope; light piercing through the dark. It is heart-warming to see Spider understand the responsibility of a son towards his father as he saves his father’s life towards the end by rescuing him. He is still not on his father’s side. You can understand his dilemma. In spite of not liking his father, what he did was out of respect and that speaks a lot about him. I like the dynamics of the relationship between Miles Quaritch and his son Spider. It is very nuanced and well developed. The intricacies of their relationship are well explored. The way it has been portrayed you kind of like Quaritch as a father. Maybe some father-son bonding is on the cards in the sequel of the film.

I feel that the Na’vi are more human than the humans ever could be. Their every expression, every emotion, every nuance is so beautifully captured. The CGI is next level. The performances are fabulous. Avatar which had released back then and now The Way of Water, both are nothing less than technological marvels. James Cameron has been constantly pushing boundaries not only in the way films are made but also in the way that they are perceived.

I loved the character development, character arcs, the transformation of the characters is amazing. The women characters are strong, fierce and powerful. That talks a lot about the director’s female gaze. The dialogue writing is outstanding. I love the dialogues. The background music and the sound design has been very skillfully done which perfectly complements the flawless visual flow. Talking of the visuals, the cinematography is outstanding. I feel that the closing shot of the film is nothing less than iconic. The underwater visuals are magic in motion. The fishes look so real. The Vfx is world-class. The production design is fabulous. The sound mixing has been done to perfection with a very balanced mix. I like the transition of the background music. It is seamless. The audio of the film tells its own story altogether. If you close your eyes and just listen to the audio, you will still get the story.

I would myself love to stay in a place like Pandora. But then I feel some places are better left untouched. They don’t deserve humans. So, I just come to the theater to visit Pandora, to be with the Sullys in IMAX. I have watched the film four times in IMAX. There is something in the film that calls out to me again and again. I just connect to the Sully family. It is a masterpiece indeed. I have literally celebrated Avatar.

Once you have experienced it in IMAX no other format will be good enough. After watching Avatar, I went to experience The Way of Water again in 4DX. I wasn’t very impressed with the experience. The 4DX experience is surely overhyped. What began as a joyride went on to become distracting and annoying. The moving seats tend to get tiresome. It is not very comfortable for your back and neck. You are not really able to appreciate the film in its full glory. The film loses its immersiveness and you are not able to fully connect to it or the characters. Even the emotions are not completely felt. The beauty of the film is compromised. It was a very jarring experience. All the sensory effects in the auditorium look like cheap gimmicks. The effects have been synced with the audio track rather than the visuals making it even more pointless. The auditorium was freezing cold. I seriously didn’t understand what they were making us feel. It just makes you feel heavy in your head. After you are out of the auditorium you still feel the chills. It was crazy. If they are making us feel the freezing cold then why not the heat with all the explosions and fire? 4DX doesn’t allow you to focus properly on the film. On top of that, the other ridiculous thing they did was to cut the film for an intermission. Earlier, films in 4DX were not supposed to have an intermission. I was expecting the same here as well. 4DX is a bad format to experience the film. As someone who has loved the film, I was disappointed. Avatar: The Way of Water is a film where you want to appreciate the grandeur of the visuals, the breathtaking action; to get immersed into the world, to connect to the characters; to feel the emotions, the performances; to understand the finer nuances and the detailing; to enjoy the dialogues. You need to be very steady and calm to allow the story to pull you into it and for the film to work its magic on you. The immersive cinematic experience is a very important factor to be able to fully enjoy the essence of the film. To cleanse myself of the 4DX experience I watched the film again in IMAX. After watching Avatar, watching The Way of Water became all the more fun. This is my last time I promise. Promises are meant to be broken. Isn’t it?

The dualities are well explored. The good and the bad, two sides of the same coin. There are a set of scientists who stay back and setup a lab in Pandora, who are loyal to the Na’vi whereas the others known as the aliens or the Sky People who want to infiltrate, exploit and destroy Pandora are sent back to Earth. There are good scientists and then there are the bad ones helping the Sky People. Good humans, bad humans.

I like the coming together of the two elements, air and water during the showdown in the climax. Neytiri is mounted on an ikran. Quaritch and the other Recoms are fighting them mounted on ikrans. Jake and the Metkayina people are riding the warrior’s mount (Tsurak). The warrior’s mount is also designed in such a way that it can swim as well as fly. Obviously, the air element is there throughout like when the film begins in the forest Jake and Neytiri are flying on the ikran for their date night. Jake is conducting his strikes against the Sky People with the Omatikaya clan members riding the ikran. Jake and his family members riding the ikran to rescue his children from the Recoms. Then we see Quaritch’s avatar is learning to master the ikran. Quaritch with Spider and the other Recoms riding the ikran when Spider is teaching him how to say ‘I See You’. Quaritch and the other Recoms landing on the ship mounted on ikran to find Jake Sully in the Metkayina clans. They are returning back on the ship riding an ikran when they are not able to get any information about the whereabouts of Jake after visiting the second clan. The Recoms trapping Lo’ak, Tuk and Tsireya in the net. They are lifting them in the air riding on ikran and taking them to their ship. Finally, Wainfleet who is mounted on an ikran is lifting Kiri from the water and taking her to the ship where she is handcuffed to the railing. Then towards the end an injured Quaritch escaping on an ikran after being rescued by his son. It is not just here the elements are also portrayed in the form of the submarines, ships, boats, crab suits, aircrafts, spaceships and the ilu. We are also teased with the fire element. All the explosions, attacking the forest and setting it on fire, setting the other Metkayina clans to fire while finding Jake Sully, fire on water; fire featuring prominently in the climax. Fire as an element is there in Avatar as well.

James Cameron makes a very ideal kind of sci-fi. He keeps it simple. No scientific jargons, no high funda terms and theories. There is nothing that cannot be explained in simple words. He knows it well and does it like a boss. That shows the level of thought that goes into his films. He is a genius for a reason. What I understand about James Cameron’s style of filmmaking is that it’s an amalgamation of simple and grand. The storytelling devices are simple. The way in which the story is told is grand.

Everyone has a film that changed their life or a film that had a deep impact on them especially the filmmakers, writers, directors; for me, it would be Avatar: The Way of Water. To conclude, I would say Avatar: The Way of Water is the best film of 2022. Give it an Oscar already.